6 How He Knew

Chapter 6 How He Knew Later, back in Baker Street, Holmes told me how he had worked out the identity of the murderer. "I telegraphed the head of police in Cleveland, Ohio, and he told me that Drebber had asked for police protection against an old love rival named Jefferson Hope. This same Hope, he said, was currently in Europe. "It was clear to me that if Hope was the murderer, then he had to be a cabman. The marks in the road outside the Brixton house showed that the cabman's horse had wandered on in a way that would have been impossible if anyone had been in charge of it. So, the cabman must have gone into the house with the victim. I therefore sent out my Baker Street Irregulars and they quickly found Mr. Hope working for the cab company and summoned him here." We had been warned to appear before the magistrates the following Thursday to give evidence, but when Thursday came, there was no need of our presence. The morning after he gave his account to us, Jefferson Hope was found dead in his cell with a peaceful smile on his face.

"Gregson and Lestrade will be annoyed," Holmes remarked as we chatted about it later that evening. "Putting him behind bars would have been a career highlight for them." "I don't see that they had very much to do with his capture," I said. "What you do in this world matters little," sighed my friend. "The key is what you can make people believe you've done. As for me, I wouldn't have missed this case for anything. It's been fun, hasn't it, Watson?"

"Indeed it has," I replied. "I think I've developed a taste for this kind of adventure!"